I have a few strategically located around the shop. My wife has her own little tool bag with tape measure, screwdrivers, etc. that she and the kids can use. I don’t mind letting my family use my tools but they know they better be put back where they belong when finished. :)

Wasting time looking for tools etc. is a time-honored tradition in my shop/life. I keep trying to be really good about putting things back where they belong but it never quite seems to work that way. I have quite a few tape measures but there are always 1 or 2 that have gone AWOL !

4, although I may occasionally misplace one I do keep all 4 under my control. All of them are different so there is no mistaking them as whichever one I pick up to start a project is the only one I will use on that project.

I can not find alll the tape measures I have laying around the shop…so I can not come up with an accurate count. I do have one in the house, one in my car, one in my van and one in my storage shed.I have 2 folding 6 foot rules and a bunch of Woodpecker, and Incra precision T squares and flat rulers in various sizes.Pencils…I quit using wood pencils and use only mechanical pencils. I have about 20 or so laying around in different areas of the shop…some are #5 (fine lead) and some are #9 (heavy lead equivalent to a #2 wood pencil). The mechanical pencils never need sharpening and most importantly maintain a line of uniform thickness…I alway try to keep one in my shirt pocket…

Tape measures:Yesterday I rounded up all the tape measures. I have a rack that holds 6. Before rounding them up I had one left on the rack. As I read this thread in the shop I had 5 on the rack and I have no clue where my favorite one is. They have legs, you know…

Pencils:I believe I have this one under control. I have a 2×4 screwed to my sliding miter saw as a sacrificial fence. On the back side down the entire length I drilled pocket holes 1/2” apart. Put a red line on the top of the 2×4 to indicate where the holes are for easy loading. I keep around 10 pencils randomly located in these holes at all times. I hate not having a sharp pencil.

I keep three in the Wood shop have room for a couple of more, plus a folding wooden rule (aka old school tape measure) I also keep 2 or 3 in the garage. With that said I try to put things up at the end of the work day, but it doesn’t always happen and you would think the shop apron with all of its pockets would be a great home but there have been many times I have just sat the darn thing down on the nearest surface and then covered it up…..

-- //FC - Round Rock, TX - "Experience is what you get just after you need it"

I keep my tape in my hip pocket so I always know where it is. I like those small 12” tapes as they are slim enough to drop in my pocket and fish out easily. I use mechanical pencils and have pencil storage holes drilled in my router fence, drill press table, etc so there is always one where I need it.

Tape measures. I started buying them in fluorescent colors to aid in finding. I have at least 5, and sometimes it takes awhile to find ONE. This is not due to a mental defect. I have a wife and three sons, and they all seem to think that these measuring devices belong with them, though none of them do woodworking. I must have married a woman who was a pack rat in a previous life, and the boys inherited that trait.

Philips screwdrivers, now, I literally have to hide them so that they don’t disappear! If I keep them in their hiding places, I can always find them. Not like the wire cutters I found out in the back yard under the swing set, where my oldest son left them after he was doing something he shouldn’t, rusted solid. I have some really good hiding places for the screwdrivers, as I am down to two…that are always there when I need them.

My favorite story for screwdrivers is finding one long-lost set of minidrivers (I’d had to purchase another set) in one of my son’s rooms. Since they were small, and he was five at the time, he was sure they must be his.

I’m really not sure. I can’t find half of em. Ask me how many post-it notes I have…. LOL There’s too many of them to actually count. I guarantee that one of em has the location of a tape measure and a pencil…. hehehe

I have 2 tape measures I use in the shop. One (25’) stays in the shop and I carry the other one (10’) in my pocket. I can always find it. Likewise, I use mechanical pencils and keep one in my shirt pocket. I can always find it. At the risk of sounding OCD, a place for everything and everything in its place. Of course, before my son went off to college, all bets were off.

I have four tape measures. The crappy cheap one with only 1/4” markings seems to be the easiest to find. I have a small one that stays in my purse, and two other ones that wander around the house and shop (see, I’m calling it my shop now, no longer the garage :) )

Since I’m the only one in the house who knows what the silver thing with the long tape in it is for, I can’t blame anyone but me. Our 8 yr old son is interested in how things work, and building things, so I’m fostering that as much as I can. If he pilfered on of the tape measures, I’d be so proud! Dear hubby is NOT handy. It took him years to admit it, but he’s been banned from touching my tools and he’s okay with that.

I bought a box of flat pencils from HD, sharpened them all and never seem to use the same one twice, but can always find one.

But if anyone has solved the mystery of my socks, I’d be glad to know!

With today’s technology, it’s possible to embed tracking sensors in tools or anything we want to keep track of. It would just be a matter of pressing a button, like on car security remotes to find the tool. Of course you would need another remote one to locate the first one. Sensors are used all the time in stores to prevent theft.

Pencils – has anyone noticed just how hard it is to find decent pencils anymore? One of the first additions to my shop was a pencil sharpener but it is almost useless anymore! The cheap Chinese junk they sell now doesn’t have the lead centered well enough that the pencil sharpener does any good! I tend to sharpen them with a knife now to get a decent point.

I have about 6 tape measures in the shop and, like everyone else, I can’t find one when I need it! Ditto using the same tape measure all the time. I find that the biggest difference between tape measures is that damned slip joint on the hook end – they don’t all slip the same amount – adding up to about a 1/16” difference between tapes.

Tapes, at least 15 around the shop… I built little wood baskets where the main machines have a place for a tape and pencil…. If I am doing serious work I only keep one tape in hand. Or use a Metal ruler. Love the Fast Cap ones….

Pencils, I have used the ones from LV and they are nice, but mainly get the Black Widow ones you can get at Wally World….

Pencil Sharpeners, I buy the Old School type off fleebay… Crank the handle type… My Girls love them too much cause they always sharpen them after the sharpen them and just a little more longer they will hit the eraser…..

Even with all these precautions in place when I do need one fast I can never find them and when I do they are usually all in the same area…. I guess some things are just not meant to be…...

I used to do the multiple tape measure deal but then I discovered how much variance there was between tape calibration. Now I use one and just keep it on my belt.

As far as pencils, I don’t know where they go! I did buy a bunch of these sticky-back pencil holders at the dollar store one time. I stuck them on my saws and bench and most of the time there is a pencil on them.

Having worked in the trades so many years, I have the habit of clipping them on my pants pocket, so I’m generally not looking for a tape measure. Pencils, on the other hand, tend to disappear. Like you, Monte, I should have a drawer full of them. It’s like they grew legs and walked away.

-- The first cordless tool was a stick. The first power tool was a rock.

I know exactly where all but one of my 6 tape measures are. I have a good idea where the one I am not certain of is. My wife used it 2 days ago, and I think it’s actually in the laundry room on the dryer, but I’m not certain…

I have clamshell cabinets in my shop, with pegboard doors, set up after the Wood Magazine design. On the outside of one of them I have an array of pegboard “baskets” that hold things like utility knives, sharpies, tape measures, bench dogs etc… My tapes are in there.

On the other hand. What the devil I did with all my pencils I haven’t the foggiest idea. Probably got sucked up into the DC and are in the dust bin for all I know… I mean I do HAVE the little peg board pencil holder bucket, but the pencils never seem to find their way back into it…

I think the Gnome that keeps stealing one sock out of a pair is stealing my pencils too!

However, I find myself using my 3’, 4’ and 5’ aluminum yardsticks for all critical measurements that won’t fit in my digital calipers. I hate the end of “tape measures” because the “hook” wiggles and throws off the measurement by as much as 1/16”, just enough to be a PITA. My 2-cents…

I am convinced I have a shop ghost who delights in hiding pencils, tape measures and whatever I happen to be looking for next.

I have three tape measures but generally can lay my hand on one without too much fuss. Pencils I gave up trying to keep up with. I just bought a big bag of #2’s and grab a fresh one when the shop ghost hides the last one.

Now if I could just find one of my pencil sharpeners. . .

-- "It ain't what you don't know that gets you into trouble. It's what you know for sure that just ain't so." - Mark Twain

I have about 12 tapes all over the shop, with three in my tool caddy. I usually take the free tape measure coupon when I go into HF. But I mainly use aluminum rules like Mike, or Starrett 6” rule with metric for really good measurements. The tapes are mostly for initial cuts off the plank.

Pencils? What pencils? I must have bought 100 pencils, including a POUND of them at the flea market, US made that when I do run across one of them, I really like it when I put it through my old style pencil sharpener. I seem to find the same three pencils all the time, which are getting shorter and shorter, since I have no idea where all the others are!

I keep a bin next to the door and light switch to my shop, where I can empty my pockets of everything that should stay in the shop. Then on my way back in the next time I’ll put the tools/pencils back where they belong. A lot less stuff gets washed this way..